Standard Objects and the curse of the MetaData API
Some of you may be familiar with a great tool called Snapshot by Dreamfactory. This tool allows you to backup your Salesforce schema, compare schema across two orgs, and push changes from one org to another. It’s very useful if you have a strict deployment procedures and test things out in a sandbox before going live in production.
I’ve always wondered how Snapshot was able to make changes not only to Custom Objects but also to Standard objects. The Force.com IDE for Eclipse allows you to make changes to Custom Objects, but it doesn’t seem to allow you to make changes to Standard Objects. This is a real bummer because it means you have to manually recreate changes that you want to move from sandbox to production. On big projects, that can mean hours of extra work!
Well, good news, a post by JonP on the Force.com discussion boards reveals the secret to accessing Standard Objects via Eclipse. Check out Salesforce on Rails to see a cleaner version of the instructions. Special thanks to Scott over at Arrowpointe for pointing this out to us.
So what does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a developer, it means you can easily move configuration from one org to another with drag and drop or cut and paste. You can also easily create many fields at once without having to click hundreds of times in the UI. If you’re an Admin, you can use this functionality to backup and restore your configuration. If you’re a sales engineer, you can easily switch your configuration to suit different demos. Everyone who deals with configuration can benefit, so what are you waiting for?